Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus capable of communication with an image forming apparatus and a method of controlling the same.
Description of the Related Art
There exist image forming apparatuses having a SEND function in which an original image is read by a scanner or the like, and the read image is attached to an electronic mail and transmitted. An address recorded in an address book of the image forming apparatus can be used for a destination to which to transmit. Also, for cases in which an address is not recorded to the address book, it is possible to use one that is input from a console unit that the image forming apparatus is equipped with. However, inputting from the console unit is often a burden for a user.
Meanwhile, it is possible to expect that convenience of the user will be improved if it is possible to use, for a destination of a SEND transmission, an address recorded in an address book of something outside of the image forming apparatus such as an information processing apparatus (a mobile terminal for example) or the like. In such a case, although it is necessary to transmit the address book that is in the mobile terminal to the image forming apparatus, in order to do that it is necessary to establish a connection with the image forming apparatus and transmit the address.
For connecting from the mobile terminal to the image forming apparatus, there exists a method in which the image forming apparatus that the mobile terminal connects to is specified and connection is performed by wireless communication. There exist mobile terminals that have a plurality of methods for connecting to image forming apparatuses by wireless communication. For example, there exists a method for searching for an image forming apparatuses that are near the mobile terminal by BLE (Bluetooth (registered trademark) Low Energy) and selecting the image forming apparatus to connect to from among these. Also, there exists a method in which a camera imaging function of the mobile terminal is used to read a bar code including information which specifies the image forming apparatus, and an image forming apparatus to connect to is selected. Furthermore, there exists a method in which an NFC touch is used to select an image forming apparatus to connect to in a case in which the image forming apparatus can use NFC (Near Field Communication).
In this way, although a user attempts to specify an image forming apparatus by one of the methods in a case when the mobile terminal has a plurality of specification methods, there are cases in which when specification is not possible due to some factor, an error termination occurs and connection with the image forming apparatus cannot be completed. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-244606 proposes an electronic device that outputs a message prompting so that setting is performed in a searchable state in a case when the image forming apparatus could not search by wireless communication.
However, there is a problem as is recited below in the foregoing conventional technique. For example, in the foregoing conventional technique, there are cases in which depending on the content of the outputted message, it is difficult to immediately solve the problem to be able to connect to the image forming apparatus. For example, it is possible to consider causes such as the case in which the wireless communication function that the image forming apparatus used is not supported, the case in which it cannot be used due to some function restriction, or the like. Although it is necessary to select the image forming apparatus by another method in such cases, it is difficult for a user to immediately understand what methods exist or what method should be selected and it is necessary for them to redo an operation from the start. In this way, it was cumbersome since there was the need to redo an operation from the start in the case where it was difficult for a user to select an appropriate specification method in a case in which an information processing apparatus such as a mobile terminal or the like had a plurality of specification methods, and an error termination occurred.